This invention relates generally to therapeutic and exercise devices and methods, and particular, to step-up and step-down exercises using an apparatus needing no adjustment to enable stepping over a wide range of step height differentials.
Stepping exercise devices have become increasingly popular for both therapy and recreation. Complex and expensive power-operated stepping devices having in fact become a standard, recognizable item of equipment at health spas throughout the United States and the world. Such stepping devices are commonly used in recreational and rehabilitation environments for exercise, assessments and training, and are also used in clinical settings for testing and research.
Of course, the users of these devices often possess a wide variation of physical capacities from one user to the next, which requires electronic or physical adjustment of the settings associated with the device. As a result, stepping devices are typically costly, electronically or physically complex, and heavy.
It would be desirable to have available a low cost, simple stepping device which can be used by people possessing a wide range physical capacities without any electronic or physical adjustment whatsoever for usage from one person to the next.
In particular, it would be desirable for such a stepping device to require no electrical power whatsoever, and to have no mechanical moving parts whatsoever, while still enabling use by such people of varying physical capability.
It would further be desirable for such a stepping device to enable stepping over a wide range of step height differentials ranging, for example, from 2 to 24 inches and even 26, with differential step increments, for example, of approximately 2 inches.
That is, it would be desirable for such a device to provide step height differentials of approximately 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 22 and 24 inches, and even 26 inches, as desired by the user, without any power or electronics, without any mechanical moving parts, and without any adjustment whatsoever from one user to the next.
It is further desirable for such a device to be lightweight, and hence easily portable.
In a preferred embodiment, six steps of varying height are provided adjacent to one another in an integrated unit resting upon and surrounded by a floor surface. The height of each step in relation to its adjacent steps, and in relation to the floor, is determined such that by stepping between any chosen pair of adjacent steps, or by stepping between the floor and any given single step, step height differentials of approximately 2, 4, 6, 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, 18, 20, 22, 24, and optionally 26 inches are all made available to the user.